Sulle diverse fortune dell’approccio evidence based in ambito medico e educativo

Medical research, as well as clinical practice, are both based on a rigorous evidence based approach which allowed medicine to achieve a high level of progress. By contrast, educational research and practice only marginally rely on an evidence based corpus of knowledge. Such a discrepancy can be explained by taking into account the law of effect, according to which only responses to stimuli that produce a satisfying or pleasant state of affairs in a particular situation are more likely to occur again in the situation. Following this interpretation, it can be argued that the evidence based approach works in the medical field but not (or, at least, in a much lesser degree) in the educational one. Indeed, while there is a huge incentive for doctors to keep up-to-date the same is not true for teachers and most of them see no need to seek for educational practices and strategies that have generated the most positive effects. Let’s hope something will change.